Reformatting your computer’s hard drive usually comes after finding that your computer has been made the victim of a virus, inexplicable error messages or slowing down for no other reason. To rid your computer of all of these issues, reformatting the hard drive of your computer is the only solution. Formatting and installing a newer version of the operating system can get rid of these problems that are normally caused by fragmentation on the disk.

What is reformatting?

Many people don’t know what formatting a disk actually is. It is preparing the hard disk or hard drive to be read or to be written on. Formatting your hard disk allows the operating system to erase all the important information or the data that you have stored on the disk. It also tests to see that all of the divisions or sectors on the disk are working properly or have any kind of damage. Formatting the disk also creates shortcuts to locate important information. If the hard disk has never been formatted before, it is called formatting, but if the hard disk has been formatted before, it is called reformatting.

Preparing to reformat your computer

Reformatting your computer is a process and needs to be prepared for adequately. Back up any important files or documents before reformatting your hard disk. If you do not back up the information you could lose the information permanently. Any information or files kept on the hard drive can be corrupted or deleted during the reformatting. Installing an antivirus software is also advised, along with device drivers, and the operating system disc with the key or password. It is important because it will help get your computer back to working order should anything go wrong.

Two Simple Steps to Reformat Your Hard Disk

Step 1

To begin reformatting your hard disk, put the boot CD in the drive and restart the computer. The screen will go black, but don’t panic. Follow the instructions that guide you through the process and will instruct you through the process. By pressing any button, you will start the CD and it will begin the process of reformatting the hard disk. The CD will load files onto the computer and eventually give you two options. One option is to customize your upgrade and the other is just the regular upgrade option. If you’re formatting your computer you need to select the custom option. That will lead you to a menu that will ask you to install the operating system. That is where you will want to have the disk for your operating system along with the key or password. Choose the hard drive with the old version of the operating system installed in it. The primary hard drive is usually the disk you want to choose for this process. First select the drive you’re formatting and then choose “drive properties” and then “format”. The process takes a little while but the drive is then reformatted.

Step 2

After this, you’re in the home stretch. Simply install the operating system on the reformatted hard disk. Make sure that you remove the boot CD when you’re done with installing the operating system. If you don’t, the computer will repeat the process you just went through. If you don’t remove the CD, it can eat up a lot of your time. After reformatting and installing the operating system, all you have left to do is to restore the files you backed up previously. This is where having an antivirus is important. If you do not check your files before restoring them on your computer all of your work could’ve been for nothing. A single file containing a virus can start you back to reformatting again.

Finally, You have done the reformating process and got the newly installed operation system. After that you have to install all the softwares you usually use one by one.